


Lindbergh

by dont_need_me



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Child Abuse, F/M, Illegal activity, Kidnapping, Lies, M/M, Minor Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, OC, Pain, Sadness, Superfamily, ass kicking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-17
Updated: 2014-11-25
Packaged: 2018-02-25 16:52:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2629190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dont_need_me/pseuds/dont_need_me
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was said to be one of the biggest and most mind boggling kidnappings since the Lindbergh Baby. There were no leads, no clues and no evidence. Margaret Stark-Rogers was gone, missing, taken. Though they were assured none of the blame rested on either of them, Tony felt responsible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Vita

It was said to be one of the biggest and most mind boggling kidnappings since the Lindbergh Baby. There were no leads, no clues and no evidence. Margaret-Stark-Rogers was gone, missing, taken. Though they were assured none of the blame rested on either of them, Tony felt responsible. The details of their daughter’s conception weren’t exactly legal, which is why, outside of him and Bruce Banner, no one knew about it. Tony had made sure that no one knew anything, not even Steve. It was hard, but worth it. The science of it was still some what of a perplexion, and in all truth Maggie’s successful conception was more of an accident than anything. A trial. But it had worked, everything was right, so there was no reason to try again. The genes took to the organs they were introduced to, and the simulated egg was fertilized with a sperm that was enhanced to carry both his and Steve’s genes. Nine months later, the the synthetic embryonic sac was opened, and a baby screamed. That was it. That was eight years ago, and he thought he was in the clear. He thought he was safe. 

For some reason, something told him that whoever took Maggie knew. If they knew, they would want instructions to the procedure. That was just something he couldn’t give.It wasn’t even something he was sure he had, his notes only would take one so far, and there was no way he would divulge information so harmful to anyone who would use it wrongly. The world wasn't ready for fabricated man-made life yet. It wasn’t ready for the consequences that came with conception that involved only sterile beakers and tubing. He knew what he’d done was illegal. That there was a possibility that now there was so much attention drawn to her, an investigation was bound to happen. With that, the truth would be leaked. It was what could happen when the floodgates opened is what worried him. What would happen to Maggie...what would happen to him...to everyone involved in the project. There was a painful possibility that their daughter could be euthanized. That they would take her and run experiments, treat her like a lab rat and keep her away from the world. That would be all on him, and he might have to decide whether he wanted his child to die at the hands of a government agent or at his own.

Now Steve was sitting there, bleary eyed and angry, knee bouncing as he talked into the phone, Tony could do nothing but watch, and hope the wall of falsities that he had built around him don’t crush him when they fell. Maggie had been missing for seven hours. The world was watching, looking, even praying for the little girl. Jesus, she was only eight. Tony took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. Steve needed to know. Everything. Tony wasn’t ready though. He couldn’t sit there and explain how their kid was an experiment. A test run. He couldn’t tell Steve that he was still making observations about growth and health and comparing it to that of a human born child. If he did, he was sure to lose him along with Maggie, and then he would be alone. Again. He would do it, sooner or later he had to do it. but sooner or later wasn’t now, and Tony wasn’t prepared for the hatred he would revive when he came clean.   
\--  
Steve liked to think they were good dads. Good parents. Despite that fact, his mind still raced with thoughts of what he could have done differently to change the outcome of the last twelve hours. Maybe if he had taken Maggie to school himself, she’d still be safe, if he had picked her up from school early they could have had lunch then gone to a movie or anything, anything that didn’t involve her leaving for school and not coming back. Tony looked like he was going to be sick. His face was pale as he spoke quickly and quietly to Bruce on the phone, his eyes darting up to Steve every few seconds as he did so. Steve couldn't’ help but think there was something secretive about his actions. The was his eyes moved and his free hand nervously fiddled with the hem of his shirt showcased his nervousness, and Steve didn’t know how to help. He was already beginning the tracking steps, trying to find answers, but there was literally nothing. There were no notes, no ransom letters or fingerprints. There wasn’t even a precise location of abduction, nor was there a time. How was he supposed to find his child when he had none of the tools to do so?Steve looked at his watch, and hated to think that he’d never seen time move so quickly.   
\--  
“Do you know anything about where you come from?” The man in front of him had a thick russian accent. Maggie was only able to play it because Natasha had taught her to speak the language.   
“Well, you know when two people love each other-” he slapped his hand down on the table, making her jump.   
“ None of this sarcasm. You know, or you do not.” Maggie shrugged, she was terrified, but she didn’t let it show. She just wanted her parents, wanted to go home.   
“You will answer me, child.” the man said, leaning closer to her over the table.   
“ I know as much as you do,” She said, glaring at him. The man nodded and waved his hand at her, and two more grabbed her by the arms and put her back in a van with blacked out windows. She didn’t know where she was, or where she was going. All she did know was she was in trouble. Her arms hurt from rough handling, and her chest ached from asthma. She had none of her medicine with her, it was all at home. She hoped that what they wanted from her was important enough that they wouldn’t let her die. Hours passed, and she was given a water bottle to drink from, and new clothes to change into. there was no food, and he stomach rumbled for it.   
“Where are we going?” she asked finally, to the man who was sitting one seat ahead of her. th interior of the van was minivan like, with a bench seat in the back, two single seats in the middle and two in the front. She didn’t get an answer, just a hush. So she sat, in her new clothes that were too big, and obviously meant for boys, and wished she was home.   
\---

They were sent a video on the exact second that marked the twenty fourth hour Maggie had been gone. It was one of her, sitting in a dingy looking room at a card table. She was still in her school uniform, dark hair up in a ponytail. She was being questioned by a man whose voice and image had been distorted.   
“ Do you know where you come from?” Tony’s heart pounded hard in his chest. He looked to his left, where Steve was standing, jaw clenched. Then to his right, where Bruce was standing. He looked pale, eyes moving nervously between the figures on the screen.   
“ Well, you know when two people love each other-” Tony heard Steve suck in a breath, waiting for the outcome of the sarcastic remark. For once Tony was horrified to say that that was his daughter, the sarcastic little shit with the curly brown hair and electric blue eyes. Tony walked away before the video ended. he didn’t need to see anymore. Steve and Natasha were already working on the network, trying to track from where and whom the video was sent. Tony and Bruce went down to the lab, hopefully to find some sort of solution.   
\--  
“You told me that you checked. You told me that what were were doing was fine!” Bruce was pacing around the lab, and Tony was watching him with a wary eye, finger on the button that would bring his suit to him faster than The Hulk could fully emerge.   
“Well I lied,” He’d told Bruce that, because it was his and Steve’s genes they were messing with, not much of a legal issue would occur.   
“ Of course you did.” Bruce said, laughing angrily, running a hand through his hair, a hand, tony nervously noted, that was shaking. “ You knew what you were doing, and you knew how to get what you wanted…” he was talking to himself more than he was talking to Tony. “ You know I don’t even know if you did it for the sake of family.” There was nothing but malice in Bruce's eyes, anger. “ I think you did it for you.” The silence between them was suffocating as Tony’s mind made connections and understood what Bruce was insinuating. Tony had had several motives when he began the project, which he’d called Project Vita, or Project V. One of which was to try and replicate the outcome his father had gotten with the serum , but in a human fetus. He hoped that the outcome could make deformities that begin in the womb, end in the womb. It was his way of trying to outdo his father. To be better...to mean more. He’d never said it, but Bruce was smart enough to see it. It was his Achilles heel. His Waterloo. He watched silently as Bruce’s pacing slowed, and he dropped on to the couch, cradling his head in his hands. There was nothing else to do then but pray.   
\----  
“What do you think? There has to be motive, Steve. People don’t just steal kids to steal them.” Natasha was right...Steve wasn’t sure why he was acting so surprised about it. There was a reason those people took Maggie, and once he knew that, the rest would come.   
“ I don’t know...money? Weapons? If they wanted something like that wouldn't they ask for it? Leave a ransom?” there was silence between them. They were set up in Steve’s art room, several different maps were pinned to the wall, and several computers had been dragged into the center of the room.   
“Why do you think they sent you that video?” She asked, pointing to a screen where the thing was playing on a loop.   
“ They’re building up to something. trying to break the opposition by threatening violence.” It was an obvious tactic. Soon, it wouldn’t be just the table the man was hitting. Soon they would send horrible things to try and wear them down, to break them by hurting Maggie until they got what they wanted. Then, if the projected flow of violence ended up where he hoped it wouldn’t, they would kill her as soon as they got it.   
“ So we won't let it escalate that far, will we?” She asked, turning to the computer, doing something with it Steve didn’t understand. It was all code and numbers and speed typing.   
“ No, we won’t.” The bastards would be dead before they had the chance. Steve vowed to make sure of it.


	2. Frankenstein

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is unbetad. If anyone is interested in beating this for me, it would really be helpful.

Maggie had fallen asleep at some point. Lulled by the quiet hum of the engine and her own emotional exhaustion. She slept solidly, and only woke when someone shook her roughly and spoke something harsh. The van doors were open, and sunlight blinded her. She was moved into another dingy looking room, this time it was larger, full of boxes and crates-a warehouse, she realised. It was cold, too cold for November, and she wondered where they were.   
“Pretty, pretty,” a man cooed at her, taking hold of her ponytail and cutting it off. She cried out at the surprise, then in anger. She’d been growing that hair since she was baby…  
“ The big guys you see, they’re looking for girl. So we make you boy. It’s good hiding,” The scissors kept working, and her hair was gone by time he was done, a dark, curly brown mop on her head. She willed herself not to cry.   
“ You look good as boy,” The man said, tossing the scissors aside. He pulled out a hat and put it on her head, it almost looked like he hadn’t even cut her hair. Then he pulled out a camera. It was a different one than the one she’d seen last time.   
“ Okay, Pretty, Pretty, say hello.” Maggie cringed.   
“ You’re sending this to my parents…” her voice dropped off, and she shivered with cold. The man behind the camera said nothing. Another man, wearing a ski mask, offered her a drink of water, but revoked it just as she reached out for the bottle. It was all a show, she knew. She had them figured out. If she didn’t play along, things might get overly interesting. Nothing more happened, Maggie just sat there, shivering, her breath misting in the cold air in front of her. The man turned off the camera, and walked over to a laptop computer that was sat on a stack of boxes.   
“ Alright. We begin next part. Return to the car.” She was taken again, but this time by the hand. She didn’t struggle, there was no point. Any insubordination would likely end in harsher treatment. So she got back in the car, and pretended to sleep. They left her alone.   
\--  
“The location is changed.” Was the first thing out of Steve’s mouth when the next video popped up.   
“ Obviously,” Natasha huffed, looking tired and annoyed. They’d both worked through the night, and Steve figured they needed rest...but every second counted. He watched as Maggie was teased with water, and tried to not let it affect him.   
“ I’ve got a location this time. A warehouse in Vermont.” Natasha said, a small smile playing at the edges of her lips.   
“How long ago was the transmission?” It was easy to delay a video message, but not easy to his internet connection.   
“ Almost three hours ago. But if they’re as careless with the next one as they were with this one, we should be able to track them down soon enough.” Steve frowned.   
“ What makes you think they’ll send another one? What if they know they messed up?” Natasha snorted.   
“ If they knew they messed up there still wouldn’t be a solid connection between whatever they used to send you that video and the internet.” Steve nodded and went to suit up.   
“ Thanks Nat. We should leave in a hour. Get some rest.” They’d made progress, and that was the most important thing. It made the weight on his chest seem less, and his fear conquerable . 

When Steve got down to the lab, Tony was asleep on his desk. He had his head laying on a thin tablet, and Steve shok him lightly.  
“ Tony, wake up.” he muttered, shaking him a bit harding, knowing from years of experience that tony Stark could sleep through a fireworks show without even a twitch.   
“ Tony, we’ve got what looks to be a lead. Tony sat up then, almost hitting his head on Steve’s chin.   
“ Wha? Lead? Where?” He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and stood, starting to do something with the suit.   
“ Vermont..but Tony listen. I need you to stay here. Incase something happens, incase they bring her back. One of us should be here.” Tony stopped, and looked him dead in the eye.   
“You want me to stay?” he asked, sleep muddling his logic. Steve nodded.   
“ Stay here. Keep doing whatever you’re doing. I have some reports and coordinates and stuff here for jarvis if you don’t mind.” He handed Tony the manilla file and looked at him a moment.   
“ We’ll find her,” he said, pulling Tony close to him, running his fingers through his hair.   
“Yeah,” Tony said quietly, relishing in Steve’s warmth. Steve kissed him, then left, leaving Tony to muddle further in his own dilemma.   
\---  
“Empty,” Natasha said, breath misting in the air. “Nothing. I found a decent pile of hair, but it was swept. We can run DNA…” Steve’s eyes were cold and calculating as he tried to figure a trend. Warehouses and dingy, abandoned looking rooms. A thought pushed at the back at his head that he tried his best to ignore.   
“I’ll check the perimeter one more time. Check some of the boxes, trash cans and waste chutes. Look for storage rooms, anywhere something can be hidden.” The small team of agents that had come along nodded, and fanned out. Steve began to walk, Natasha fell into pace next to him   
“ You think it’s him, don’t you?” She asked, as if it were the most obvious thing on the planet.   
“ I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, stiffly. He lifted the flaps of a few boxes, but only found odd ornamental frogs.   
“ Stupid doesn’t suit you, Rogers,” she said, looking up and around, always on guard. “ You think it’s Barns-The Winter Soldier, remember that guy?”   
“You’re talking about two completely different people,” Steve said, not even looking at her. The infiltration of SHIELD by Hydra had been bad.Finding out that you're dead best friend-turned robot was actually the murderer of your husband’s parents was even worse. He didn’t like to talk about it. It had been years. Two to be exact. He liked to think he was over it. At least until it was brought up and he was caught by surprise.   
“ And you’re still not answering my question,” Natasha said, turning when an agent claimed he’d found something. The guy was young, too young, Steve thought, but he held in his hands Maggie’s school uniform.   
“ This is good,” Natasha said, the corners of her mouth tweaking up in satisfaction. “ This is very good. We might get some valid DNA extracted from this thing. We could find out who’s got her.”   
“There’s nothing else we can do is there?” Steve asked, he was holding the uniform to his chest, thinking hard. In a game of chess, every move you made was critical to keep from falling into check. For some reason he was feeling like he was making all the wrong moves.   
\---  
Maggie held her abdomen with both hands, trying not to cry. She was hungry, and tired, and she missed her Pappa. She missed her Dad. She miss Aunt Nat and Uncle Clint, even Uncle Bruce, who she hardly ever saw. She wanted to go home.   
“What is the problem, little monster?” A different man with clipped speech was staring at her from the driver’s seat of the car. He was chewing on beef jerky, and Maggie’s mouth flooded with saliva. Why had he called her a monster? She had done nothing monstrous...she didn’t understand. She just sat up, unable to pull her eyes away from the beef jerky bag.   
“ You want this?” He asked, showing it to her. She nodded and, he reached into the bag and handed her a piece too small to even have to chew, but it was something. She shoved the morsel into her mouth before it could be taken from her and sat backThe car she was in was moving quickly, she didn’t need to look out the window to know that. She took off her seat belt and laid across the bench and closed her eyes, feeling sick to her stomach, wishing she had something more to eat. She didn’t understand the use of starving her. It wasn’t like it was her they even wanted. they wanted something from her Dad. The small amount of Russian she knew allowed her that, to key in on information and conversation held in the front seat of the decrepit van. When the car screeched to a halt, they let her get out and even walk around for a moment. They were at a motel. Not a bad one either, that was a change. She watched as one man went to the check in, the others were to keep watch over her. There was as small park situated just to the left of the parking lot, and she was shoved over to it.   
“ Act like happy child,” he barked, pointing to the sadly abandoned swings and slide. “ Go.” Now that she was in daylight, she could see all three men she was with. The one who was with her had horrid english, the other was the only one who had no accent. He looked young and tired. The last spoke fine, but his accent was strong...They were less scary now. Maggie knew things about them, may it only be the fluentness of their english, she had something to define them by, it lessened her fear.   
\---  
“ What’s your problem?” Bruce was sitting there, going over notes with him, looking for information that was harmful, and removing it to a more secure location. Tony had only convinced him to help after he brought up the fact that Maggie could be taken. Bruce had made it clear to him that if it weren't for the little girl, he’d let tony alone in a jail cell to rot for the rest of his pathetic life.   
“ What do you mean ‘what’s my problem?’” he shot back, it was plainly obvious and Bruce wasn’t an idiot.   
“ I mean, you haven’t said a damn word. To anyone. And if these people are looking for what we know they’re looking for, you’d find your kid a whole lot faster-” Tony pushed away from the workbench, sending usb drives scattering to the floor.   
“ Why don’t you say anything then?” He raised his voice, but thought better of it, crouching down to pick up the precious drives. “ Because if anyone else knew that you know, you’re in just as much shit as I am, that’s why.” He slapped them onto the table, and dared Bruce to argue.   
“ The act isn’t mine Tony…” He said at last, shaking his head. “ I have my guilt, but the act isn’t mine. Don’t even let yourself think for a second that it is.” tony snorted and shook his head, getting up to pour another cup of coffee.   
“ Don’t worry, I didn’t.” Bruce ran a hand over his face and hair, sighing.   
“You have twelve hours. Im going to give it all up. I can’t...I'm not going to be responsible for the death of a child.” Tony scoffed a little and shook his head. Great. Just great. 

Steve got back a few hours later, and he was more wound up than before he left. He was holding Maggies school uniform, not letting go of it, really. When Tony first saw the navy blue coat he panicked, assuming the worst-  
“ she’s not dead, as far as we know...she’s not dead.” Steve assured. They were standing in the kitchen, having been ordered to sleep, to eat and to return in six hours. They were close now, and Tony let his head rest on Steve’s shoulder.   
“ I just wish I knew why,” he whispered. It took everything Tony had not to reply. Steve was crying. He was crying scared, sad tears, and Tony couldn’t do anything but press kisses to his jaw and neck and pretend like he knew nothing. Pretend like it was all alright.  
When Steve kissed him, it burned. He felt heavy as he was shove against a wall. Felt more like scum the more Steve whispered his admirations and declarations of love. 

He finally felt nothing, when they lay in bed. Naked, exhausted, breathing hard. Steve rolled over, after cleaning them up, and pulled him close. Tony felt nothing. He made sure of it. How could it hurt if he didn’t feel? he didn’t sleep much, sort of floated on the edges of sleep and waking, aware of his surroundings, and the nearly inaudible voices and machinery three floors down. His mind was running faster than normal, faster than healthy, trying to find solution that wouldn’t involve losing everything. If there was one thing he had learned from Steve Rogers is there is always a way. The program was stashed in an old suit in one of his storage units. The genetics, the tests and the step by step process. Tony’s stomach lurched just looking at it. He wasn’t proud of it, not like he thought he would be. It only proved that he wouldn’t change. That’s he’d be making weapons no matter how hard he tried to make life. What he had? It was the key to creating an army larger than life in nine months. An army that could be designed to be superior in every way, that could be given every good gene from every human on the planet and made perfect. He was Doctor Frankenstein and there was his monster.

**Author's Note:**

> Explaining Stuff:   
> The Lindbergh Kidnapping: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/the-lindbergh-kidnapping 
> 
> Project V: Vita means "Life" in Italian.


End file.
